Summary of Replys: CURSES(3)-like libraries for MS-DOS
Paul Sutcliffe Jr.
paul at devon.UUCP
Thu Jul 21 01:08:40 AEST 1988
Early in July, in <849 at devon.UUCP>, I posted the follwoing question:
+---------
| [...] I will be initially developing an application for the DOS
| environment, but future plans call for porting it to OS/2 and
| Unix/Xenix, and I want to have all versions using the same (or at least
| similar) screen functions. So, I'm looking for information on Unix
| (preferably SysV) curses-like library routines for use under MS-DOS,
| specifically MS-C 5.1. Commercial products are preferred (to be able
| to get support), but a well designed PD package will do (if sources
| are included or available).
+---------
I then asked:
+---------
| Please e-mail your responses, and I'll summarize to the net.
+---------
First, thanks to all for the replys. I only saw two articles that
were posted; everyone else did as I asked and mailed to me -- proving
that there is *some* etiquette (sp?) on the net. :-)
So, as promised, this is a summary posting of what I received. The
overall "winners" appear to be a public-domain PC-Curses, and a
commercial product (also called "PC-Curses"?) from Aspen Scientific.
The remainder of this article contains edited portions of all the
replys. Enjoy!
----- START OF SUMMARY ------------------------------------------------
Date: 6 Jul 88 05:56:13 CDT (Wed)
From: larryd1 at killer.UUCP (Larry Clark)
Try looking for a package named Curses from Aspen Scientific, it seems
to work reasonably well. Most credit card order houses carry it for about
$125
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 6 Jul 88 09:14:54 EDT (Wed)
From: gatech!rutgers!marob.masa.com!daveh (Dave Hammond)
Try PC-Curses, a (well designed) PD package which supports SV Curses
with PC-specific bios and direct video i/o toggles. The object and
docs are available on many public access systems, including marob (this system).
The source is available from the author for about $25 or so. Support is
very good (yes, SUPPORT for a public domain package! :-).
PC Curses by:
Jeff Dean
710 Chimalus
Palo Alto, CA 94306
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 6 Jul 88 11:07:26 CDT (Wed)
From: bill at carpet.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy)
I use a curses workalike from Aspen Scientific in Colorado. It is far
more robust on the PC side than it is on the UNIX side, but most of my
problems have been with their forms editor, not run time. I must further
admit that the protability problems I have encountered have been the
differences between Vr2, Vr3.1, and SCO's oddball. None of them can be
blamed on Aspen Scientific.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 88 12:21:41 EDT
From: "J. Efrim Boritz" <uunet!watmath!watdragon!jeboritz>
We have been using a package produced by Looking Glass Software (ala Brad
Templeton I believe) for over two years now in a commercial product. We bought
the source code with the library and made a number of hacks to it (it needed
them 8-(. At the time it didn't handle colour, subwindows properly etc. This
may have changed with new versions - we just haven't bothered keeping up
because of our changes. Other than that, it works reasonably well, although
if you have 7 or 8 windows with scrolling in each, it can get a little slow.
I can't remember the price we paid. They are located in Waterloo, Ontario
Canada, telephone (519)884-7473.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gatech!rutgers!iuvax!att!drutx!qwerty
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 88 13:38:00 EDT
Aspen Scientific
P.O. Box 72
Wheat Ridge, CO
80034-0072
(303)423-8088
This company produces an excellent Curses package for the PC. We have used it
here to port applications from Unix to the PC. So far, we have identified
several problems with the Unix versions of Curses doing so... The AS product
is very clean and solid. Comes with a very well done manual.
Their product also supports a number of enhancements for the PC environment,
including color. These can be included via #ifdef constructs to maintain
portability. The price is $119.00 (source $289.00).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 6 Jul 88 10:18:39 PDT (Wed)
From: gatech!ucsd!boop!paul (Paul Palacios)
This was posted to the net some while back. I had looked around and
found that a company by the name of Aspen Scientific sold a full
curses library (with or without sources). Without sources was around
$100 (can't remeber now). I bought it with sources for about $300.
>From what I had worked with, it seemed comatible but like all
MS-DOSified packages, there are some added functions that are
IBM-PC-compatible specific.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kgeisel at nfsun.UUCP (kurt geisel)
Date: 6 Jul 88 20:57:31 GMT
Lattice puts out a nice little package called "Lattice Curses", which
is a library supporting curses functions on the PC. I know it works
on MSC 4, but I haven't tried it in 5 or later. Curses may not be the
way to go, depending on what you are trying to do. It is essentially
monochrome, and is not up to par with PC interfaces. Too bad Lattice
didn't put in a small hack to do color.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Michael Greim" <uunet!unido!sbsvax!greim>
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 88 12:36:54 +0200 (MET dst)
There is a free version of Curses using terminfo available. It was
written by Pavel Curtis. Recently I asked Netland about information
concerning this package. I have got a letter from Pavel Curtis stating
that he is no longer interested in his copyright on the package and
that AT&T has no claim whatsoever on the source code.
I ported it to my machine and found that
- in each of 2 test programmes a nasty bug did surface
- it is faster than BSD Curses
- but slower than a Curses extension I have written in 87, called Curry
- the code needs some work to make it easier to port to non-BSD machines
(by the way, my machine here is SYS3 based, but I also have access
to VAXen (4.3BSD) and SUNs)
- its functions are a subset of SYS5 Curses, but a superset of the
old BSD Curses. It supports several terminals at a time and
works with terminfo. The utilities to compile terminfo descriptions
are included. The other programmes to handle terminfo which are available
on SYS5 are not there, namely the thing to convert terminfo to
termcap.
The copyright notice in the code is dated 1982 and Pavel said, there was
no later "official" release.
I got my version from the University of Dortmund (unido) West Germany.
Someone has meddled with the code : of the documentation only the
formatted version exists, but not the nroff input.
In Rich Salz' archives around 1985 there is listed a thing called "pcurses".
Maybe that is the original Pavel Curtis Curses.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 88 08:08:32 EDT
From: drexel!liberty!texsun!csed-1!krantz (Alan Krantz)
There is a package on SIMTEL20 called PCCURSES. There is a version for
MS C and TURBO-C. I haven't used it myself but I've heard it's pretty
good. Sources are also available - actually, everything on SIMTEL20
includes sources....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: raila at m.cs.uiuc.edu
Date: 8 Jul 88 17:18:00 GMT
Aspen Scientific has a curses implementation for DOS/OS-2 along with some
nifty screen development tools and libraries. I used it for a project, then
ported the screen I/O portion in a couple of hours to ATT V.3 and 4.2BSD.
They also support colors, etc. You can find an ad in BYTE, or Doctor Dobbs
Journal.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9-Jul-88 00:24:22 EDT
From: hjg at gor.UUCP (harry gross)
I don't know just how committed you are to the curses package (or a
look-alike), but I thought I would mention a very fine screen package that
works under UNIX and MS-DOS (I don't know about OS/2 yet - details below).
The package is called FORMAKER, and it is sold by a firm called JYACC.
Screens developed under MS-DOS can be used on UNIX, and vica versa.
JYACC is on the net, so you might try sending a note to them requesting
further info on the package (try zink at jyacc, or jjk at jyacc).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <cbmvax!uunet!ames!ames!mailrus!utah-gr!uplherc!sp7040!obie!wes>
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 88 00:56:59 MDT
Austin Code Works has to PC-Curses packages on their list - one for
$120, authors not listed, and one for $250 from Aspen Software. You can
call them at 512-258-0785, or send mail to uunet!acw!info.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cbmvax!uunet!wash08!txr98
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 88 16:13:59 EDT
Paul: I own and use PC-Curses by Aspen Scientific. It is a fully
system-5 compatible curses, with extentions, that is available for major
compilers on ms-dos and os/2 environments. It has proven to be an
excellent package to produce portable C code with. The only problems I
have encountered so far are the speed differences between my PC at home
and our NCR Towers at work - the PCs screen write is much faster that
the Towers. I prototype with curses ( and turbo C ) at home for
portable applications I develop for work. I have compiled unix curses
applications at home, with only differences between C compilers being
any issue (I compiled a Unix chess program on my pc at home (that uses
curses extensively) with *no* editing or modifications).
The libs are available from the Programmers Connection (800-336-1166)
for $105, and source (with executables) can be had for $249. I purchased
libs-only, but would be much happier with source. I purchased directly from
the developer - the cost was an additionaly $10 or so ( I don't have that
phone number here, but I believe that they are located in Colorado, and
advertise in most programming magazines).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 6 Jul 88 12:02:16 EDT (Wed)
From: cbmvax!uunet!daitc!otishq!guardian (Harry Skelton)
PC curses is available from archive sites 'novavax' and from the uucp site
'killer'. If you don't have access to them, then I can get them and e-mail
you a copy.
pc-curses-turbo - PCcurses for Turbo-C (four parts)
pc-curses - PCcurses standard 'C' routines (four parts)
pc-curses - PC curses manual pages - Four Parts
other files of interest:
kurses - A program to call curses(3) functions (shell level)
window - wm (four parts) - Patches to Curses (windowing ?)
You can get them via e-mail by doing:
echo "pc-curses-turbo\npc-curses\nkurses\nwindow"|mail sources at novavax
or by uucp from the site 'killer'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 6 Jul 88 09:01:23 PDT (Wed)
From: cbmvax!cae780!hplabs!hp-sdd!isg300!jsh0 (J. Steven Harrison)
We have been using the curses product from Aspen Scientific and love it.
Source is included. They can be reached at 800 255 5550 x176
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 88 10:17:37 CDT
From: "Jerry Nettleton" <sun!tundra!jnettle%woods.unix.eta.com>
There are four CURSES packages that I know about.
PCCURSES is public domain and source is included free.
CURSES04 is shareware. Cost is $20 for registration, additional $20
for source code.
CURSES by Aspen Scientific is a commercial product and costs $119.
Source available for $289.
CURSES by Lattice is a commercial product and costs $125 (with source
$250), but through PC-Brand (800-722-7263) it is only $99 (with source
$199).
I have used PCCURSES and CURSES04. I prefer CURSES04 since it has a faster
screen update and supports a BIOS video option. It also has many of the
curses functions as macros as in the UNIX versions. That makes for a smaller
library of functions that has to be maintained.
A review of CURSES by Aspen and Lattice appeared in "Computer Language"
magazine in June 1987. If you want a copy of the article, I can send that
to you.
PCCURSES v.1.0 Release Notes - 870824
Bjorn Larsson (...seismo!mcvax!enea!infovax!bl)
INFOVOX AB
Box 2503
S-171 02 Solna
SWEDEN
CURSES04 Version 0.4 (3/87)
Jeff Dean ({parcvax,hplabs}!cdp!jeff)
710 Chimalus (jeff at ads.arpa)
Palo Alto, CA 94306
CURSES
Aspen Scientific
P.O. Box 72
Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80034-0072
303-423-8088
CURSES
Lattice, Inc.
2500 S. Highland Avenue
Lombard, IL 60148
800-533-3577
Illinois: 312-916-1600
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 88 20:36:06 EDT
From: uunet!vsedev.VSE.COM!logan (James Logan III)
I have used a curses package that is SUPERB for MS-DOS. It is
fully compatible, and it allows you to take full advantage of the
PC. It is sold by Aspen Scientific. I don't have their address
or telephone any longer, but you can probably still find them in
Doctor Dobb's Journal. Hope I've helped...
----- END OF SUMMARY --------------------------------------------------
Well, there you go. Hope this is as helpful to others as it was to me!
- paul
--
Paul Sutcliffe, Jr. +-------------------------------+
| Two wrongs don't make a right |
UUCP: paul at devon.UUCP | But three lefts do! |
or : ...rutgers!bpa!vu-vlsi!devon!paul +-------------------------------+
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